Qibli
Qibli is a young male SandWing and the main protagonist of Darkness of Dragons. He is described as crafty and witty and has expressed interest in machinery and technology. He was formerly attending at Jade Mountain Academy as a member of the Jade Winglet, and is currently in a relationship with Moonwatcher. Appearance Qibli is wiry and narrow-shouldered with pale, sand-colored scales. He has several light brown freckles that stand out on his snout, a dark amber earring hanging in one ear, and a small, rakish, zigzagging scar across his snout. He has also been described as warmly handsome by multiple dragons, including Moonwatcher, Umber, and Winter. Personality Qibli is observant, clever, and witty, often using intelligence rather than force to escape tight situations. He always has multiple plans in case something goes wrong, and his deduction skills are extremely advanced. Although funny and charming on the outside, Qibli is internally self-conscious and has a constant longing for approval, threading this insecurity into his every action; he even desires approval from those he dislikes himself. He is very loyal and kind to his friends, but he can become easily defensive when insulted on a personal level. Biography The Brightest Night Qibli first appears as a member of the Scorpion Den's Outclaws as Thorn pins Preyhunter for admitting to Morrowseer's death. When Preyhunter lashed out at Thorn, he and Six-Claws were among the first to rush to her defense, although Thorn herself had already killed Preyhunter. Later, he follows Thorn and Sunny through the city as they discuss the "Wanted" posters. When they reach Thorn's tent, Qibli stubbornly tells Thorn that he isn't going to leave her alone with Sunny, as she was, at that time, a stranger. When a messenger informs Thorn of a supposed Dragonbite Viper near the orphanage, Qibli and Sunny are left alone, although she falls asleep shortly after Thorn's departure. When the Outclaws attack Burn's stronghold on behalf of Sunny, he fights alongside Thorn and Six-Claws, narrowly saving Thorn's life by pushing a rival SandWing soldier away. Moon Rising Qibli is first seen noticing Moonwatcher in Jade Mountain Academy's main hallway as he is speaking to Ostrich. She hears him observe the way she's twitching back her wings, and he wonders if she's plotting something or just shy. Later, in the prey center, he interferes when Winter confronts Moon about his pet scavenger, Bandit, and how she wasn't allowed to eat him. Humorously defending Moon from Winter's harsh threats, he helped Winter understand that Moon had been trying to save Bandit, not eat him. Qibli also attended a meeting concerning both of their winglets the next day, where he defended Moon again as Winter was trying to pry supposed NightWing secrets out of her. The next day, he shows up after Winter when Moon is warning everyone about the fire. He asks her what's wrong and tries to stop Carnelian from going inside, lying and saying that it was because it smelled bad. When the cave blows up, Qibli then defends Moon a third time from Winter when he asks her how she knew. Qibli finds out that Moon is a mind reader, thinks that she thought of him as a terrible dragon, or maybe even realized his feelings for her and then runs off. The next day, he tells Moon that he wants to help her find the murderer. Qibli then tells Moon to check Pike, Flame, and Princess Icicle. They all are dead ends, and they later both go outside to try Onyx. Qibli asks questions to get Onyx to admit that she set the fire. Everyone in the circle respects him. After they know it isn't her, Moon lies to Qibli about the Skyfire, which makes him distrust her again. Moon reads his thoughts later, wondering if he should tell the MudWings. He then appears when Moon goes to see Sora. When Sora and Umber leave, Qibli follows Moon to the library. They both know that the killer is Sora and that Icicle has been conspiring with Ex-Queen Scarlet to kill the Dragonets of Destiny. When they get there, Icicle is creeping up on Starflight, ready to attack. Qibli warns Starflight to look out, but as he does, Icicle pins Starflight down and twists around to use him as a shield. Moon begs her not to kill him, and Winter overhears the conversation and questions his sister. Icicle warns Winter to stay out of her way. Moon hears Icicle's thoughts as Qibli gets too close to her, and shoots frostbreath at them as she shoves him out of the way. Moon takes the hit on the edge of her wing, then Icicle smashes Starflight's head, knocking him out. Moon lands next to him, making sure he is alive. Qibli throws himself at Icicle, and she throws Qibli on top of a desk, which he slides behind. Icicle then goes for Moon, and Winter tries to get her off, but Icicle is bigger and stronger. Icicle then states Starflight was the reason the IceWings died in Queen Scarlet's prison. Moon states that Winter and Starflight are good inside. Winter then smashes his tail onto Icicle's head, which causes her to let go of Moon. She had a gash on the back of her head and cuts from Qibli. Icicle then reveals that Hailstorm is alive, she was working with Scarlet to get him back, and that Winter ruined their chance. She then flies out the window while Winter shouts for her to come back. Qibli gets back up, with bruises all over his face, and his earring nearly torn off. He thinks about how disappointed Thorn would be if she saw him get knocked out by an IceWing. Winter Turning Qibli annoys Winter by making clever observations about Winter's plans but still wants to be friends. Winter got rid of Turtle, and Qibli said that he couldn't get rid of the rest of them as easily. This annoyed Winter very much, but he "allowed" them to follow. They all ended up flying to the rainforest to warn Queen Glory about Icicle coming to kill her. Qibli sees the dead NightWing body covered in frost breath. He is later locked in the wingery with the others and escapes to the NightWing tunnel where they find Icicle. Kinkajou tackles her to the ground out of rage saying that nobody was going to kill her Queen. Icicle was reaching to kill her, but Glory shows up suddenly and tranquilizes Icicle. When they go out looking for Scarlet after Icicle was dreamvisited, they meet Squid and Riptide, two SeaWingsfrom the Talons of Peace, by a river. They look at the drawing and Riptide summons two SkyWings, Avalancheand Pyrite. Avalanche seems like she wants to rip off Qibli's tail barb. Pyrite claims to know where it is when they mention that they are looking for Scarlet. That's also when Winter makes an observation that Qibli has feelings for Moon and wonders if his own feelings are as obviously shown as his. When they find the mountain Moon saw in the dream, they take a short rest. Winter is dreamvisited by Scarlet, which means she is spying on them. They look around and find a shredded camp and one of Scarlet's scales, and they discover she herself had been there. They started looking until they found a cave, and while Kinkajou and Pyrite are still sleeping, they sneak up on Scarlet and her companion and overhear her yelling at her companion and orders him to bring Pyrite to her. When they get back to camp, Winter confronts Pyrite and she attacks him, Qibli fights her while Winter and Moon fight Scarlet's companion. Qibli pins Pyrite to the ground and Winter tears off the necklace that she had previously refused to remove. Qibli jumps back at the sight of her scales falling off to reveal Prince Hailstorm. However, Kinkajou is severely injured by Ex-Queen Scarlet's NightWing companion. When they get to the town of Possibility so that they can take Kinkajou to the hospital, Winter gets worried about Hailstorm's confusion and decides to wear the necklace so he can know what Hailstorm is going through, but before he can do so, Qibli tears off number four of the conditions, which roughly is, "feels the need to wear this necklace with life/death urgency." When Winter puts the necklace on he turns into Pyrite, and Qibli asks him if he could have the necklace back, so Pyrite gives it to him and Winter appears again. Winter decides to go back to the Ice Kingdom, and Qibli tries to reason with him, but Winter ignores him, and Qibli gives him a week to come back to them. When Winter is leaving, Qibli calls out, "Don't be a stranger!" Escaping Peril Qibli flies above Peril and Turtle when he heals himself in the river. They greet each other when they meet. Qibli is suspicious of Peril and says to Moon after Moon told Peril Qibli is "probably the smartest dragon in Pyrrhia", and had already come up with five ways to kill her by now, Qibli states that he had only come up with three so far. Qibli points out to Peril that she still refers to Scarlet as 'the Queen.' When Peril burns Winter while trying to dive away, Qibli, Moonwatcher, and Turtle land below the arch and gather around Winter. Qibli frantically tries to think of a way to heal Winter, stating that Winter could breathe frost breath onto his scales and mentioned that there was no cactus sap that heals burns. Qibli gets pushed aside by Turtle as he works with his animus-touched river stone. He asks why Turtle has "a magic healing rock." He quickly figures it out and exclaims that Turtle must be an animus. Later, he says that Winter running into Peril looked like a fight when Peril tries to convince the group it was an accident. Qibli notes that Winter left pretty firmly and questions why he gets a vote on stating that Peril was the target of the Jade Mountain Prophecy. When they get the scroll from Chameleon, Winter and Qibli get into a fight on how to use it, which causes Peril to burn the scroll and to unintentionally free Darkstalker. Talons of Power Qibli first appears exactly where he left off in Escaping Peril, watching Darkstalker emerge from the mountain. He quickly notices that Darkstalker is ignoring Turtle. He then asks Winter if he is alright when Winter suddenly forgives Darkstalker easily. When they are leaving to go hunting, he gives Turtle a meaningful look and then signals him to warn the school. Later, he tells Peril to just go through with talking to Clay instead of worrying about it and asks Turtle if he is like that around Moon. He immediately says "never mind" to Turtle and tells Turtle that he doesn't know yet if Darkstalker is evil, and Turtle should keep a lookout. When Turtle goes to see Winter and Qibli, Qibli mentions again how odd it is for Winter to act this forgiving. After Winter storms out, Qibli reluctantly asks Turtle if Turtle can make him an animus, but immediately dismisses it when he sees Turtles reaction and instead asks for a spell on his earring that would shield him from all of Darkstalker's enchantments. Turtle does, and when Qibli tries it on he mentions that he feels more connected to himself, proving that Darkstalker made an enchantment that made everyone like and trust him. When Darkstalker comes, knowing that a spell had been cast, he asks Qibli if Anemone had passed by. When Qibli said he didn't think she had but says that she might have, he realizes Darkstalker could sense animus spells. Darkstalker asked Qibli to tell his history scroll to roll up to test his animus powers, which obviously failed. Darkstalker informs Qibli that he would have made a formidable animus. When Turtle plans to follow Darkstalker and Anemone to the Rainforest Kingdom, Turtle gives him one of his enchanted slates. These slates were enchanted so that when Turtle got a writing idea, he would write it on one slate and the writing would appear on the other. After Turtle leaves, Qibli isn't shown in the rest of the book, but Turtle sends him messages several times. However, at the end Turtle tells Anemone to go find Qibli for help when Darkstalker summons all the animus dragons from Pyrrhia. Darkness of Dragons Qibli watches Darkstalker leave with the NightWing students, Turtle, Anemone, and Moonwatcher (Moon). In a flashback, Cobra snaps at Qibli that he'll never amount much and she discourages him from trying to be a hero, as he would only fail after he delivers to her a coconut that he stole from a fight between a cat and mouse earlier in the day. Thorn then proceeds to take Qibli away from his home and mother (who happily agreed) and into cities unknown to him. She asks him what he did to the spiny mouse, as he sets the mouse free. Thorn says she assumed he had rescued it and compliments him on his cleverness, saying his skills are what she wants in her organization. Qibli notes, that ever since that day, Thorn had his complete trust and loyalty. However, he now thinks of Moon just as much if not more than he thinks about Thorn, and wonders if Moon would ever love him back with the same hopefulness he used to show toward Cobra. Qibli then snaps out of his pondering and flies up to Winter, who is sorrowfully watching Moon fly away with King Darkstalker and his followers. Qibli, when looking at how Winter watching Moon fly away, he thinks about how Moon would always choose Winter and his beautiful scales and heroic personality over Qibli. When Winter catches Qibli watching him, he claims that he's watching the sunset and Qibli sarcastically responds that the sunset is the only thing interesting happening. Winter then says that once Moon comes back with the others, everything will be normal again but Qibli disagrees, asking how things could be normal if Winter came back to school after faking death to his tribe. Winter says he never planned on going back to the school, and Qibli realizes he came back because Moonwatcher was at there. Qibli decides that he needs to break the supposed spell that Darkstalker cast on Winter, for Winter's sake and for Moon's, but he struggles to find ou how. Qibli then realizes tha he could duplicate his enchanted earring using Turtle's duplicating bowl. Qibli then brings the bowl out, only to realize he doesn't know how to use it. Peril walks by, and with her, he figures out how to use the bowl. With his new enchanted earrings, Qibli confronts Winter and tries to give him one, but Winter was clear he would not put anything magic on him after what happened to Hailstorm. Qibli scolds himself for not guessing Winter would be a stubborn, "stupid donkey". Later during history with Webs, many dragonets question Webs about Darkstalker. Winter then haughtily announces that he trusts his judgment better than any scroll's, and gets in an argument with a big MudWing named Sepia about his sister Icicle, who was a murderer and in cahoots with ex-Queen Scarlet. Qibli notices that Onyx and Ostrich are not there in the cave with them while defending Winter. He finds this troubling, as Ostrich particularly likes all her lessons, along with the fact that Sunny peeks in, gets worried look and hurries on. Webs agrees eventually to tell the dragonets about Darkstalker if they stopped fighting. When Qibli states that Webs' claim about Darkstalker being humble and unambitious now is wrong, Winter disagrees with him. He says that it wasn't like Darkstalker immediately demanded to be NightWing king. Ironically, the slate that Turtle enchanted began writing the words 'Darkstalker wants to be NightWing king' across its surface and Qibli has to restrain himself from laughing. Sunny asks Webs to give her Qibli and gives him worrying news; Ostrich and Onyx have gone missing. Qibli hurriedly makes multiple earrings through Turtle's enchanted food bowl and when he looks for the Dragonets of Destiny to give the shield earrings to them he finds out through Sunny's dreamvisiting that his grandfather Vulture has Ostrich in the Scorpion Den. He argues with Clay in the weapons cave about how he can't face his grandfather with only three daggers, a sword, and a big stick, saying if he goes to him unarmed it'll be like 'cutting his own throat and hanging his corpse from an alley wall'. He is then interrupted by Winter, who offers to go with him. Qibli claims that it is because Winter adores him, and while Winter mutters about how his plan was already backfiring, Qibli worries about how Winter is under Darkstalker's spell and might be spying on him for the evil animus NightWing. But he decides to let Winter come along, thinking that later he may be able to get Winter to wear his earring. Winter and Qibli set off to the Scorpion Den. When they land, Qibli worries about how the shadows stalking them don't do anything but watch and he hurries to his old home. There he cannot find Cobra but is met with his siblings Sirroco and Rattlesnake. They have acquired new tattoos like Vulture's and take Qibli and Winter into Vulture's compound. There they find Vulture watching two scavengers in a maze. Winter defends them and Vulture waves away the guards and the scavengers. He also starts the train of thought to lead Qibli in figuring out the truth about Onyx - she's Prince Smolder and Palm's daughter. He also says that she will be challenging Thorn for the throne. Vulture says that Cobra, Qibli's mother, is imprisoned in an oubliette for giving Qibli away. Vulture then demands that Qibli give away all of Thorns secrets in order for his friends, his mother, and his own release. Qibli pretends to write down Thorn's secrets in a scroll, stalling, while his mother makes more throwing stars from the one Ostrich swiped in Turtle's doubling bowl. They then escape and leave for Thorn's palace, where Qibli finds Thorn, Smolder, and Typhoon, a SeaWing/IceWing hybrid from Possibility. Typhoon talks about how all the IceWings in the settlement have gotten suspiciously sick. Qibli suggests giving enchanted earrings to the staff (Thorn and her subjects), and more for Typhoon to take to all the IceWings in Possibility and the Ice Kingdom to be free from Darkstalker's plague and spells. Winter suddenly attacks him for opposing Darkstalker, while still under his spell. He freezes Qibli's arm, causing him to pass out, right after he jabs an earring in Winter's ear. Thorn's doctors heal Qibli's arm, and he wakes up in a room with Winter, who grudgingly apologizes for fighting Qibli. Qibli gets to work making more protection earrings, even though Typhoon already left with the two still in Qibli's bag to give to sick IceWings. Winter watches as he doubles his own earring in Turtle's bowl, and asks if Qibli is secretly an animus dragon also (along with their clawmate, Turtle), and Qibli thinks darkly of how Winter took his one change with the enchanted scroll away and responds instead with a mention of Turtle's magic. They make many more protection spells for all of Thorn's staff and the IceWings. Thorn walks into the room and asks what Qibli is doing, but corrects herself after watching with a more specific question of how. Qibli explains, and Thorn asks why they can't just have Qibli's friend animus stop Darkstalker with a spell. Qibli says that magic could, but the particular dragon could not. She also asks for some earrings to give to Queens Coral and "Mudhen" (a typo for Queen Moorhen). Winter jokes awkwardly about how they were going to inflict Qibli's terrible fashion sense on the whole continent. They plan on who was going to take the earrings to where, and Thorn tells Qibli and Winter that she will handle it with her messengers. They then return to the balconies and find out that the "Talons of Power", Vulture's followers, were filling the skies fighting the OutClaws, and the "nightmarish shape" of Vulture holding the Eye of Onyx that he stole from the treasury. He gives a speech, stopping the fight, and wrongly shapes Qibli's words that he yells at Vulture into his favor. Vulture claims that the threat of the bombing is the MudWings, and says that he has proof. He is cut off by Queen Thorn, who tells him to bring the MudWing to her for questioning instead of illegally taking him into custody, and for a real SandWing duel in the dueling grounds if there is a serious challenger. Vulture counters by claiming he has the Eye of Onyx so there is no need, but Thorn reveals that that one is just a fake that she keeps for fooling thieves and saving their lives, while she is wearing the real one. Vulture tries to fight back by questioning whether the one Thorn wears is the real one, and she calmly responds that the real Eye of Onyx kills anyone not worthy of the throne and that it hasn't killed her yet. Qibli catches that she implies Vulture would be dead if it weren't a replica. Winter mutters to Qibli the connection around Onyx's name to the eye of Onyx, while Qibli frantically searches for Onyx in the crowds of SandWings all around him. He spies a flicker of movement and shrieks to Thorn that she's right below her. He dives towards her, and Thorn fends off her attacker. She tells Qibli not to hurt Onyx, and he finds it hard not to protect his queen more, protesting. Onyx claims the crown should be hers, and Thorn scoffs, saying Onyx should fight her like a real queen, and that "this crown will never fall to a sneaking, sulking shadow killer." They go to the dueling grounds, where Smolder, Onyx's father, talks to Onyx. Qibli worries that since Onyx is truly royal blood, the Eye of Onyx might choose her, causing him to try and call up a storm that would delay the battle. He regrets it instantly after using Anenome's magic bracelets, but it is too strong and makes a sandstorm. Thorn races to get everyone inside, and they lose Onyx, Vulture, and Smolder in the process. Once they are all safe, Qibli and Thorn go looking for them, and find Onyx and Smoler in the dungeons, where Onyx has been injured. Smolder is scared of the "mad prisoner" who is Prickle, Palm's sister, Onyx's mother. Ostrich and Six-Claws find another entrance from the outside of the dungeons, and they make it back outside, where Qibli sees all the damage he's done. He vows not to use the bracelets again, as Thorn scolded him earlier for "controlling" the weather. after the near-fall of Jade Mountain, Qibli also provides Princess Anemone with a spell to stop the battling NightWings and IceWings at The Jade Mountain Battle, and later oversees the fall of Darkstalker with Moon, Hope, and Kinkajou. The Lost Continent in the epilogue, he is seen meeting Luna for the first time along with Moonwatcher, his new girlfriend. Qibli is shocked to see a dragon from Pantala for the first time and comments how Luna has so many wings and asks if it is hard to fly with all those wings, then answers his own question saying that's a silly question. When Luna tells them that they need to get her home, Qibli tells her that he "Has some ideas" to get her back to Pantala. He is also seen in the exact same scene in the epilogue of Darkness of Dragons. The Hive Queen coming soon!